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Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
(2023)
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Jessica Kiang
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The small, smoky, steamy miracle of this film is how it creates something so intangible, so lyrical, from the absolutely elemental: fire, wood, water and lots of naked female flesh.
Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Air
(2023)
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Peter Debruge
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Casting Davis was the smartest thing Affleck could have done, as the EGOT winner is to acting what Jordan is to sports: Her strength inspires, and she can move us to tears while making it look easy.
Posted Mar 20, 2023
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Raging Grace
(2023)
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Joe Leydon
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Paris Zarcilla, the British-born Filipino writer-director here making his feature debut, does an impressive job of infusing scary movie conventions with the potent urgency of a sharply observed social critique.
Posted Mar 19, 2023
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Full River Red
(2023)
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Richard Kuipers
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With a twist-packed plot to match its labyrinthine location, Zhang’s fast-paced film motors along nicely as an engaging “Knives Out”-style whodunnit before stumbling a little in the protracted final act.
Posted Mar 18, 2023
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Joy Ride
(2023)
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Peter Debruge
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The movie may not be “Bridesmaids”-level brilliant, but it’s got more than a couple hall-of-fame-worthy comedy set-pieces...
Posted Mar 18, 2023
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C+
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Monolith
(2023)
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Amy Nicholson
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Falls sway to the clickbait tropes it intends to send up: red herrings, a tone of suffocating gloom and a desperation to keep the audience on the hook.
Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Boston Strangler
(2023)
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Courtney Howard
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A distant cousin to Zodiac, with splashes of Seven mixed into its homages, this thriller falls short of its influences yet carves out a small space of its own.
Posted Mar 17, 2023
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You Can Call Me Bill
(2023)
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Owen Gleiberman
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“You Can Call Me Bill” cuts engagingly between the wit and wisdom of William Shatner and a wealth of footage from his career...
Posted Mar 17, 2023
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Evil Dead Rise
(2023)
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Joe Leydon
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Writer-director Lee Cronin has delivered his own imaginatively scary take on the “Book of the Dead” mythos with “Evil Dead Rise.”
Posted Mar 16, 2023
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Tetris
(2023)
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Peter Debruge
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Picture “Tetris” as a lo-fi version of John Le Carré’s “The Russia House.”
Posted Mar 16, 2023
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The Magician's Elephant
(2023)
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Michael Nordine
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While the movie itself is more whimsical than magical, it does have a few tricks up its sleeve.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Shazam! Fury of the Gods
(2023)
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Owen Gleiberman
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The real story here is that a superhero saga that seemed to hold out possibilities of lifesize quirkiness and delight winds up getting squashed into the shape of any other superhero franchise.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Bloody Hell
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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While imperfect, “Bloody Hell” does entertainingly offer food for thought via an important overall point made in non-preachy form...
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Love to Love You, Donna Summer
(2023)
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Owen Gleiberman
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As “Love to Love You, Donna Summer” captures, the woman who made “I Feel Love” into an anthem lifted you to a place where you couldn’t help but feel it too.
Posted Mar 15, 2023
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Boys on the Side
(1995)
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Brian Lowry
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Given perennial complaints about the dearth of Oscar-worthy roles for women, Boys sends calendar-year ’95 off to an auspicious start, reinforcing Whoopi Goldberg’s dramatic credentials and Mary-Louise Parker’s rapid ascension toward major star status.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Problemista
(2023)
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Peter Debruge
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For all his funny ideas, it doesn’t feel like Torres has a consistent world view, and the movie is poorly organized and unwieldy as a consequence.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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John Wick: Chapter 4
(2023)
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Owen Gleiberman
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“Chapter 4” feels like the first “John Wick” movie that wants to be a Clint Eastwood spaghetti Western. It’s like Sergio Leone crossed with John Woo as seen in Times Square.
Posted Mar 14, 2023
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Northern Comfort
(2010)
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Alissa Simon
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Balancing empathy for his eccentric characters with overall entertainment value, the Columbia University-trained Sigurðsson shows that he has the chops to work internationally should he choose to.
Posted Mar 13, 2023
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Hypnotic
(2023)
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Peter Debruge
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This slick mix of special effects and practical ingenuity puts Affleck in a fun position, and the slightly grizzled star’s still got the clench-jawed charisma to pull it off.
Posted Mar 13, 2023
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Bottoms
(2023)
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Owen Gleiberman
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A high-school comedy that is brazenly gonzo, scaldingly and at times even dementedly over-the-top, and actually about something...
Posted Mar 12, 2023
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Sisi & I
(2023)
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Guy Lodge
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Consistently gets by on the eye-candy delights of Thomas W. Kiennast’s velvety, tactile 16mm lensing and scrumptious, magazine-ready design contributions.
Posted Mar 12, 2023
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B+
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If You Were the Last
(2023)
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Amy Nicholson
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A romantic comedy that revives the screwball formula where two people talk themselves silly — and we only had to go to the end of the solar system to make it happen.
Posted Mar 12, 2023
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A Disturbance in The Force
(2023)
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Joe Leydon
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Maybe it really wasn’t all that terrible. Or maybe it was. Either way, the tone is more affectionate than disparaging in Jeremy Coons and Steve Kozak’s documentary.
Posted Mar 12, 2023
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Self Reliance
(2023)
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Peter Debruge
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Coming up for connection, Johnson delivers a silly and frequently surprising why-we-need-people parable.
Posted Mar 12, 2023
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Flamin' Hot
(2023)
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Peter Debruge
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Americans love corn, and “Desperate Housewives” star-turned-director Eva Longoria serves it up rich and tasty in her feature debut, scripted by Linda Yvette Chávez and Lewis Colick.
Posted Mar 12, 2023
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Opponent
(2023)
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Guy Lodge
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Alami maintains suspense at both ends of his narrative without making a blank cypher of his protagonist, played with seething specificity by an electrifying Payman Maadi.
Posted Mar 12, 2023
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Appendage
(2023)
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Dennis Harvey
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Despite the grotesque premise, its attack is a little too blunt to make much impact, whether taken as thinly-veiled satire or straight fantasy thriller.
Posted Mar 12, 2023
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Money Shot: The Pornhub Story
(2023)
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Owen Gleiberman
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As “Money Shot” persuasively argues, pornography may be a hot-button topic, but the closer you look at it the more you realize that nothing about it is simple.
Posted Mar 12, 2023
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The Teachers’ Lounge
(2023)
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Jessica Kiang
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It delivers you directly into a sense memory of chalk dust and boredom, of fidgeting at your desk and gazing longingly through big windows that seem tauntingly designed for exactly that purpose.
Posted Mar 11, 2023
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Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
(2023)
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Owen Gleiberman
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It’s at once cheesy and charming, synthetic and spectacular, cozily derivative and rambunctiously inventive, a processed piece of junk-culture joy that, by the end, may bring a tear to your eye.
Posted Mar 11, 2023
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The Dark Angel
(1935)
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Abel Green
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Miss Oberon is a revelation.
Posted Mar 11, 2023
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What's Love Got to Do with It?
(2022)
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Guy Lodge
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James and Latif, both wholesomely appealing, don’t exactly burn up the screen either, but they fit together, in the romcom language that the film mostly speaks.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Our Body
(2023)
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Jessica Kiang
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Luxuriant in length but never less than compelling...
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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Chang Can Dunk
(2023)
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Peter Debruge
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“Chang Can Dunk” doesn’t go the way you’d expect, and that’s a good thing.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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65
(2023)
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Todd Gilchrist
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Anchored by another in a series of committed performances from Adam Driver and an ensemble of suitably menacing prehistoric beasts, Beck and Woods’ adventure delivers requisite thrills even if its creativity seems stuck in the distant cinematic past.
Posted Mar 10, 2023
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The Light of Asia
(1925)
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Mark Vance
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The Light of Asia will hold interest through its native cast, its colorful surroundings and its picturesquenesss, yet cannot approach anything exceptional or sensational through Its snaillike story pace
Posted Mar 08, 2023
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Scream VI
(2023)
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Owen Gleiberman
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It’s a homicidal shell game that‘s clever in all the right ways, staged and shot more forcefully than the previous film, eager to take advantage of its more sprawling but enclosed cosmopolitan setting.
Posted Mar 08, 2023
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Champions
(2023)
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Peter Debruge
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[It] might have felt enlightened 25 years ago — back when “Forrest Gump” was an Oscar favorite — but today makes for a patronizing portrayal of people with intellectual disabilities.
Posted Mar 07, 2023
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Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland
(1992)
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Christian Moerk
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The retro-technology of Jules Verne meets the dread of J.R.R. Tolkien in a superbly crafted tale of good and evil in a land of dreams. This slick steamroller boasts an impressive concept and imaginative design.
Posted Mar 07, 2023
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Ithaka
(2021)
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Owen Gleiberman
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I’m sorry, but family affairs don’t tend to make for good documentaries.
Posted Mar 04, 2023
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A Little White Lie
(2023)
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Rene Rodriguez
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Director Maren doesn’t trust Shannon to convey this inner monologue via his performance — just one example of the film’s plodding lack of wit or sophistication.
Posted Mar 03, 2023
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The Year Between
(2022)
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Dennis Harvey
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Achieves a degree of poignancy and depth within a distinctive sensibility you might call Midwestern Sardonic.
Posted Mar 02, 2023
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Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre
(2023)
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Owen Gleiberman
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I could never escape the feeling that Guy Ritchie had trapped himself on a hamster wheel of trying too hard. I’ve liked a few of his films. But I’ve never loved one. Until now.
Posted Mar 01, 2023
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#Manhole
(2023)
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Jessica Kiang
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An original enough blend of single-location thriller, online cautionary tale and WTF ridiculousness to make for an enjoyable plunge into the unknown/unknowable.
Posted Mar 01, 2023
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Children of the Corn
(2023)
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Owen Gleiberman
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Like a virus that keeps coming back but growing weaker each time, “Children of the Corn” is now a horror movie that lacks the strength to infect you with even a speck of fear.
Posted Feb 28, 2023
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Art College 1994
(2023)
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Jessica Kiang
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Like its characters, “Art College 1994” gives the impression of having just too much time on its hands.
Posted Feb 26, 2023
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Bad Living
(2023)
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Jessica Kiang
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Canijo appears to be going for a tragic, Bergmanesque effect — there are a lot of windows and mirrors into which one or other woman can stare pensively — but with such a lack of human warmth, the tragedy never really grips.
Posted Feb 26, 2023
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Till the End of the Night
(2023)
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Guy Lodge
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Tossing a fraught transgender love story in the middle of an otherwise standard cop procedural, the film doesn’t much satisfy on either level, with superficial sexual politics and slack suspense.
Posted Feb 25, 2023
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Tótem
(2023)
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Peter Debruge
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Avilés works in a generous, open-ended style, entrusting her characters to nonprofessional actors and treating their creations as impulsive, occasionally contradictory souls...
Posted Feb 25, 2023
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On the Adamant
(2023)
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Guy Lodge
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“On the Adamant” might not achieve the crossover success Philibert has found in the past, but it’s a warm reminder of his perceptive gifts...
Posted Feb 24, 2023
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